The frantic search for three missing people in the wreckage of a Sydney convenience store - which exploded in flames in the early hours of Thursday morning - came to a climatic point on the same night when a body was removed from the rubble.

Rescue crews finally retrieved a body of a man more than six hours after its discovery at the site of the explosion in the Sydney's inner west.

Police have not formally identified the body but it is believed it could be missing man Chris Noble.

At 10.50pm on Thursday, emergency service workers at Darling Street in Rozelle rolled a body from the site on a stretcher.

Crews have been working throughout the night to continue the search for the two other people who are still missing, including 12-month-old baby boy Jude. He and his 31-year-old mother Bianka O'Brien still have not been found.

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Fire and rescue personnel finally manage to remove the unidentified body from the rubble of a Sydney convenience store which exploded in flames on Thursday morning

The body was found at 4:30pm but was unable to be moved due to the site being dangerously unstable and would put rescue crews in danger

Bianka O'Brien, 31, and her 12-month-old son Jude (left) and unrelated 31-year-old Chris Noble, are amongst the three people who remain unaccounted for after the blaze

It has been a painstaking task for rescue crews who have battled not just the wet and cold conditions, but the threat of the surrounding brick walls around the site collapsing.

Darling Street remains closed from Beattie Street to Victoria Road and shop owners have told Daily Mail Australia they will be contacted by police when they are able to re-enter their businesses.

But it is expected it will be days before this will happen.

Rescue crews were left unable to carry out their work for some time after the discovery of the body at 4:30pm due to the site being dangerously unstable.

All search efforts were temporarily halted and all crews pulled out after laser beams, which have been pointed at an unstable wall on the site, detected movement.

Police finally retrieved the body more than six hours after its discovery. They have not formally identified the body but it is believed it could be missing man Chris Noble

Police have confirmed a man's body was found amongst the rubble at 4:30pm but family and friends were told of the find before media were alerted three hours later

Superintendent Ian Krimmer told reporters no cries for help had been heard coming from the rubble in which police have placed listening equipment and cameras within cavities where someone could have survived

Rubble was being moved from the sit, literally 'brick-by-brick' according to police, so as not to hamper anyone who may still be surviving underneath

At least 55 search and rescue crew members worked at the site throughout the night and are expected to continue the mission

'We are trying to secure that wall to make it safer, then we can move in and retrieve the person that we have located,' NSW Fire and Rescue Superintendent Ian Krimmer said.

He confirmed that no cries for help or any other sound had been heard coming from the rubble in which they have placed listening equipment and cameras within cavities where someone could have survived.

'We've attacked this rubble pile from both sides - from the front and the back,' he told reporters.

'Earlier you may have seen our hydraulic platform which was reaching across the pile and our firefighters were placed above the rubble pile trying to remove debris as well.'

NSW Police spokesman Clive Ainley said rescue crews were literally removing rubble from the site 'brick-by-brick' so as not to hamper anyone who could still be alive underneath.

Throughout the night, the sound of an alarm could be heard signalling movement of the unstable wall on the site and rescue crews were seen scrambling away to safety as they continued their search for the two other people missing.

'We are optimistic we will find survivors,' Superintendent Ainley said.

The cause of the blaze is still unknown.

Police have declared the incident suspicious and NSW Inspector Gary Coffey of Leichhardt police urged any members of the public who saw a silver sedan near the scene on Thursday morning to contact police.

'At this stage it's an arson - it's too early to speculate whether it is a homicide. It's a suspicious fire,' Supt Ainley said.

'The investigation...takes secondary place after the rescue.'

Ms O'Brien's husband John O'Brien (pictured with his son), who works at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Randwick, is understood to have left for work just before the tragedy occurred

Police searched nearby bushed for blood earlier in the day. The fire is currently being treated suspiciously by investigators

A dramatic aerial image from the obliterated convenience store in Sydney's inner west - which used to be a two-storey building

The convenience store went up in flames about 4am on Thursday morning and an explosion was heard by residents who lived about 1km away from the scene

Firefighters rush to deal with the blaze in the early hours of Thursday morning and remained at the scene - along with the police - for all of Thursday and are expected to remain there on Friday

Police established a crime scene down one side of Darling Street earlier in the day, close to where Daily Mail Australia spotted officers searching for blood earlier on the road.

Recent social media posts made by Bianka O'Brien shows a mother who doted on her son. On Facebook, she described Jude as a 'cheeky little monkey' who was 'growing up so fast'.

Her husband, John O'Brien, who works at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Randwick, is understood to have left for work just before the tragedy occurred.

One neighbour said Ms O'Brien's brother, James, owns the mobile phone store next door to the blown-up convenience store and is the 'nicest guy on the street'.

A local business owner of a food outlet - just down the road from the explosion site - told Daily Mail Australia that she had seen Ms O’Brien and baby Jude on Monday morning, saying the happy child had smiled up at her.

'It's sad. The mother and boy were in here the other day buying a drink. We don’t know what happened, nobody knows what happened,' she said.

Huge blaze: Fire bursts out of the store on Darling Street at Rozelle, which is one of the major streets in the inner west suburb